Japan frees detained Chinese crew, boat

The Japanese Coast Guard released the captain and crew of a Chinese boat detained for illegally operating in waters southeast of islands claimed by both countries.

The captain, who was arrested on Feb. 2, and 12 crewmembers of the 100-ton boat were released on Feb. 3 after the Chinese consulate in Fukuoka guaranteed payment of a 4 million yen ($44,000) bail, coast guard official Yasuhiko Oku said.

Oku said that the captain admitted he was inside Japanese exclusive economic waters off Miyako Island on Feb. 2. The boat was collecting coral, which is often used for jewelry and ornaments.

The incident happened about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Japanese-controlled islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese. The islands are at the center of a diplomatic spat between the Asian neighbors.

The coast guard also reported that two Chinese maritime surveillance ships were sighted near the disputed islands on Feb. 4. Chinese government ships have repeatedly entered what Japan considers territorial waters around the rocky outcroppings since last September, when the Japanese government bought the islands from their private Japanese owners.

Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki told a visiting dignitary in 1982 that Japan and China had effectively agreed to shelve the territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, according to a previously classified document.

About 2.22 million Chinese tourists visited Japan in the first 11 months of 2014, a 1.8-fold increase over the same period the previous year, despite the frosty diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Two Chinese warships came within about 70 kilometers of the Senkaku Islands in mid-December, the closest approach since the Tokyo-Beijing feud erupted in 2012 over sovereignty of the islets in the East China Sea, sources said.

In an apparent thaw of frosty bilateral relations in recent years, Japan and China have resumed talks at various levels following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping’s first-ever summit in November.